Electronic circuit designs are becoming more complex as the number of components on an integrated circuit increase. Before forming the integrated circuit, a simulation of its electronic circuit design is typically performed. At least one person usually generates an input file and a model file. The input file includes instructions that guide and control the simulation. The model file includes a hardware description of the electronic device.
The input file is processed using an assembler or the like to generate object code. A comment table with comment lines is generated by post processing after the assembler. A simulation program is run that uses the object code and the model file. During the simulation, test vectors are simulated. The test vectors represent the states of the electrodes of the electronic circuit design during the simulation. The test vectors are used for testing finished integrated circuits or for identifying good simulations that can be used to validate further simulations of the electronic circuit design.
When the simulation is completed, the comment lines need to be placed near their associated test vectors to be useful. A person can manually place the comment lines of the comment table near their associated test vectors. This can be quite time consuming because several hundreds of thousands of test vectors may have been generated. If the input file is changed, the entire process of placing the comment lines with their associated test vectors is repeated. Also, a person can make mistakes that can cause comment lines to become associated with the wrong test vectors.
Another way to place the comment lines near their associated test vectors is to use a computer. The computer places the comment lines near their associated test vectors based upon assumptions that the simulation included a linear (sequential) program flow and that a fixed number of test vectors are executed for each comment line. A problem arises when the assembly file has a non-sequential instruction, such as a "do loop," an "if-then" statement, a "goto" instruction, a conditional branch, a branch instruction, a subroutine, and the like.
The non-sequential instruction throws off the count for test vectors. This can cause the comment lines to be placed near the wrong test vector because the assumptions used by the computer may not be correct. After outputting the test vectors and comments, someone typically has to adjust manually ("cut and paste") comment lines to place each of the comment lines near their associated test vectors.
A need exists for placing comment lines adjacent to their associated test vectors within a results file that includes both test vectors and comment lines. A need also exists for placing the comment lines and their associated test vectors without having a person double check the results file that was machine generated.